NT Coroner criticises government’s alcohol policies after death of woman

The Northern Territory Coroner has criticised the Government’s alcohol policies which put pressure on police officers and have led to a woman dying in the driveway of a Darwin sobering-up shelter

The Northern Territory Coroner has criticised the Government’s alcohol policies which put pressure on police officers and have led to a woman dying in the driveway of a Darwin sobering-up shelter.

Marrianne Munkara was 45 when she died on November 11, lying outside the Darwin sobering-up shelter where she had fallen when a staff member tried to move her.

She had been released from hospital three days earlier, was intoxicated and had numerous health problems, and the ultimate cause of death was a chronic deep lung infection.

An inquest into her death yesterday heard that police and shelter staff did not recognise that she had health problems, despite her being well known to authorities.

From mid-2011 she was taken into protective custody 27 times, there were 45 recorded instances of alcohol-related interactions with police, and she had been admitted to the sobering-up shelter 127 times.

But this did not trip the requirement for her to be assessed for mandatory alcohol rehabilitation, which should be triggered when someone is taken into protective custody three times in two months for extreme public drunkenness.

“Even when (she) appeared to be unconscious no concern was shown by staff and no sustained attempt to rouse her was made,” counsel assisting the coroner Kelvin Currie said yesterday.

Coroner Greg Cavanagh said young officers were desensitised to health issues through dealings with intoxicated Aboriginal people during early career postings to Alice Springs, where they pick up thousands of drunk and abusive Aboriginal people every year.

This was compounded by the deeper issue of a lack of compliance with record-keeping guidelines by police who are responsible for anyone they take into custody, Mr Cavanagh said, and such a lack of accountability was unacceptable.

“That’s not good enough,” he said.

Police are required by law to deal with drunken people and are the first line of authority to determine whether they should be sent to rehab, but they struggle with resourcing, he said. “The government have put on (police’s) shoulders that duty and there ought to be resources enough to record the identification of the citizen and details of their detention,” Mr Cavanagh said.

The inquest continues.